17.8.16

How Jaipur-based gems and jewellery firm Gemporia is witnessing daily sales of Rs 20 lakh within a year of operations

Keeping a tight grip on their USP Direct to Home TV Channel, Jaipur-based gems and jewellery firm Gemporia India claims to witness daily sales of Rs 20 lakh, with 96 percent of the business coming from television. Conceptualised in August 2014, the company sent out about 600 shipments a day in the first year of operations.

Gemporia India Team

Manuj Goyal, Co-founder, Gemporia India, made it happen riding high on his 25-year-long experience in the jewellery and gemstone industry, while mentoring startups as President of TiE Rajasthan and also as Co-founder of Rajasthan Angels Investor Network.

Single-brand retailer Gemporia showcases jewellery live on TataSky, Videocon D2H and Dish TV. What differentiates the company from other online jewellery firms is its omni-channel approach with presence on television, Internet and mobile apps. The company started the test phase on September 2015 on two DTH network with four hours of live telecast on Dish TV and Videocon D2H.

Looking at the growth, positive costumer feedback and organic viewership, Gemporia TV has extended the duration from four hours to 18, in six months. All the jewellery come with certificates of authenticity, BIS hallmark for gold products and a 30-day moneyback guarantee.

Tracing history…

Gemporia was originally established by Steve Bennett in 2004 when he set up Gems TV in UK and is claimed to have sold over nine million pieces worldwide, achieving almost eight-percent market share of all hallmarked jewellery sold in the UK. Gemporia UK currently sells about 14,000 pieces of jewellery every day and has a team of around 500.

A graduate gemologist from Gemological Institute of America and MD of Pinkcity Group of Companies, Manuj met Steve at a jewellery exhibition in Bangkok and became the manufacturer for Gemporia across UK and USA. Before Gemporia, Manuj’s Pinkcity Gem Technologies also produced jewellery for major brands in US and Europe.

Having worked together for eight long years, Manuj and Steve entered into a joint venture to bring Gemporia to India. Gemporia India was registered as Jewel Alliance Network Pvt. Ltd.

It took over a year to sort out the legal procedures, paperwork, permissions to broadcast, getting a team and training them, setting up infrastructure and finally going on air. Gemporia went live on air almost a year ago, in September 2015,” says Manuj. Steve and Manuj bootstrapped Jewel Alliance Network with a seed capital of Rs 20 crore.

A sneak peek at the growth metrics

According to Manuj, Gemporia India earns 30-50 percent margin, depending on the category of products. With 180 employees on the sales side and 900 people in two manufacturing factories in Jaipur, Gemporia India hopes to scale up to 14,000-15,000 a day, soon.

Getting the right set of talent in a Tier-II city like Jaipur is bound to pose hurdles. Manuj says,“The challenges began at bringing in the right people to a Tier II city, went on to building up solid logistics delivering jewellery safely, to explaining our concept to the consumer and building trust.”

However things have changed in due course and today the merchandisers, designers and craftsman of Gemporia create over 100 new products every day. The product category is divided into gold and silver, with a wide range including rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces, bracelets, bangles, ring bracelets, nose pins and charms.

Gemporia India has tied up with three e-commerce logistics players-BlueDart, EComm Express and Delhivery, covering more than 10,000 pin codes across India. Once the order is placed, it takes 3-4 days for the products to reach consumers.

With 55,000 registered customers, Gemporia India expects to achieve a Rs 150-crore revenue in the next one year and add 300 new customers every day.

Compared to our first full month of transactions in October 2015, we have already grown to about 104 percent in the number of transactions and we have made about 207 percent in terms of value,” Manuj says. Gemporia is in talks with investors to raise Rs 100 crore in private equity funding.

Market overview

According to India Brand Equity Foundation, the gems and jewellery market in India is home to more than five lakh players, a majority being small players. India is one of the largest exporters of gems and jewellery, contributing to around 6-7 percent of the country’s GDP.

As reported by PTI recently, online jewellery market in India is likely to reach $3.6 billion in the next three years, which is 20 percent of the global market size, amounting to $18 billion. The growth can be attributed to customers no longer hesitating to buy jewellery online, as each piece comes with a guarantee certificate.

Online jewellery seller BlueStone has raised around Rs 200 crore in Series-D funding, which was led by IIFL and Accel, with participation from IvyCap Ventures, Kalaari Capital, and RB Investments. While in May this year Titan group acquired majority stake in Tiger Global-backed online jewellery startup CaratLane, which is also considered as the first successful exit for Tiger and first major investment in an e-commerce firm.

Marketplaces like Flipkart and Snapdeal too retail precious jewellery. More traditional players like Tanishq and regional offline majors like GRT Jewellers have also gone online, adding to the competition.